Book 2 The Gods of Light and Liars

Chapter 40: The Blow

It struck with a crack, but it didn't hit Hawk. And that crack came with more than just Kali'Mar's fist. It came with a rush of wind carrying the scent of lilacs and jasmine. Hawk's eyes were open as she faced down her death, and she saw the remaining dewdrops tremble, the pale leaves of the surrounding trees rustling in defiance of the fire and smoke now billowing around them. And the Shadowmaster stood there, his face (Alex's face) grim and determined, and his hand wrapped tight about Kali'Mar's aborted blow.

"Hello," the Shadow whispered, and then bashed his head into Kali'Mar's.

Gulping for air, for tears, for life, Hawk crawled until her back was against the milk crystal walls. In them, she felt heat and a throbbing of power. For what, or to what, she had no idea. She looked back to the fight, her heart in her throat, and watched the two being before her fight.

They seemed matched, blow for blow. Kali'Mar struck with lightning, again and again, jovian blasts that struck the ground, the trees, the milk-crystal walls, bringing more and more detritus down to the ground. Only the crystal was unblemished, absorbing each blow with unflinching perfection. The winds whipped around them both, Kali'Mar's hot and stinking breath combatting with the Shadow's clearer, cleaner air. She caught the flavors of this metaphysical war on the edge of each breath. Now it came to sear her lungs. Now it ebbed to something cooler, sweeter, but just the lightest breath before it was back to the heat, the stink of burned flesh, the taste of ash on wind.

Now there was no space for words. Hawk was an unknown quality to Kali'Mar, but the Shadow...he knew the Shadow. This fight came with the glory of long practiced grudges, fists meeting each other in air. The Shadow got the occasional blow in, bringing heat and blood to Kali'mar's lips. But he also absorbed more than his fair share of Kali'Mar's power. It slammed through his be-shadowed body with electric pulse. It did not seem to impact him beyond a few scratches, but after one particularly devastating blow the whole of his substance suddenly seemed more translucent, less present than it ought to be.

And she'd seen that biological behavior before. With the Ape Archetype in the Bronx Zoo, when her Orb was hit by a bullet and her body dissolved around her. These things could be killed, but she realized that might only apply to Alex, and the Shadow was Alex, was the only being guaranteed to have an orb—to be killable, according to Hawk's plan.

The only way to test it was to move, and the sword—she needed it, the milk-crystal blade made from the same substance as these walls, and it was across the whole battle from her, closer to Kaiser than it was to Hawk.

She started to try to make her way across to it, crawling on hands and knees, but Kali'mar spotted her. He flung his hand up and out and let it crash across the ground, an electric whip curling from every finger tip to lash the ground and burn the moss, and rip the starlike glimmer from its home. It nearly killed Hawk in an instant, and she leapt back.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you!" He shouted, which in his world of lies and counter lies meant he had forgotten about her entirely. Well, she could keep going then, split his focus in two and keep him off his feet. Watching him, not the blade, she continued her forward momentum, retreating only at the last second. And yes, she lost ground more than she gained it. She was being forced backward once more, back towards the impervious walls.

But for every foothold she lost, the Shadow gained. His claws laced forward, ripping with most delicate precision, and Kali'Mar's lifted arms were bloodied, his powers, his lightning, all tinted with red. And Shadow spoke for the first time in this war, Alex's voice but not at all his humor. "You've let a bit of the claret flow, my friend," he hissed. "Maybe you should let the girl go...and that useless sack of skin you stole. That you can give up, too."